Programme

Lady Margaret Beaufort. By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge.

Women in Late Medieval Britain: Makers, Patrons, and Readers

The 2024 Harlaxton Medieval Symposium

at Madingley Hall, Cambridge

Please note that this is a draft programme which may be subject to change.


Monday 12th August

1:00 pm Registration opens

1:45 pm Welcome


Session 1

2:00-3:30 pm  

Mary Morse: Women as Probable Commissioners and Owners of Prayer Rolls and Amulets

Jennifer N. Brown: The Idea of the Anchoress


3:30-4:00 pm Tea/Coffee


Session 2

4:00-5:30 pm

Veronica O’Mara: A Dominican Nun as Dedicatee: Elizabeth White and the Tower Writings of John Fisher

Virginia BlantonSyon Abbey’s Sanctilogium salvatoris in Cod. Sankt Georgen 12

6:30 pm BBQ Dinner

8:00 pm Drinks Reception and PGR/ECR presentations
Sponsored by the Early Book Society

Terrace Bar open

Tuesday 13th August

7:30-8:30 am Breakfast


Session 3

9:00-10:30 am

Nicole Rice: Motherhood in the Late Medieval Hospital

Katherine Hindley: Charming Women: Medieval English Charms and Amulets for Female Users


10:30-11:00 am Tea/Coffee


Session 4

11:00-12:30 pm

Kathryn Smith: Split Figures: Women/Men in Three English Fourteenth-Century Illustrated Manuscripts

Laura Slater: Devotion, Marriage and (Sex) Education in Medieval Manuscripts


12:30 pm Lunch


1:30 pm Excursion: Coaches depart for Library and Archives tour, St John’s College, Cambridge

2:00-5:00 pm Library Tour

Dinner out in Cambridge (individual arrangements)

Return via bus or taxi (individual arrangements)


8:00 pm Terrace Bar open



Wednesday 14th August

7:30-8:30 am Breakfast


Session 5

9:00-10:30 am

Jonathan Hughes: The Emergence of the Mother Tongue and a Woman’s Perspective in Fourteenth- and Early Fifteenth-Century Italy and England

Nicholas Orme: Women and Education in England, 1200-1540


10:30-11:00 am Tea/Coffee


Session 6

11:00-12:30 pm

Sarah Baechle: “My wombe wax out”: Class, Consent, Coercion, and the Distended Body Politic

Richard Goddard, Medieval Businesswomen: Capital, Contacts and Patriarchy


12:30-2:00 pm Lunch


Session 7: The Pamela Tudor-Craig Memorial Lecture

2:00-3:15 pm

Sue Powell: Writing for Lady Margaret Beaufort: The Foundation of Christ’s College, Cambridge


3:15-3:45 pm Tea/Coffee


Session 8

3:45-5:15pm

Joyce Coleman: Intertwined Lives: Alice Chaucer and Marguerite of Anjou

Margaret Connolly: The Pious and Personal Patronage of Janet Hepburn, Lady Seton (1480-1558)


5:15 pm Julian Luxford: (site-talk) Highlights of Madingley Hall


7:00 pm Reception

7:30 pm Conference Dinner (black tie optional)



Thursday 15th August

7:30-8:30 am Breakfast

8:30-9:00 am Check out of rooms


Session 10

9:00-10:30 am

Lydia Zeldenrust: Women as Makers, Patrons, and Readers of Romances: What Counts as ‘English’?

S.C. Kaplan: Women Readers of Non-English Vernacular Texts in Late-Medieval Britain


10:30-11:00 am Tea/Coffee


Session 11

11:00-12:30

Andrew Prescott: The Women of 1381

Caroline Barron: Joan Cogenho: a London Forger in 1423


12:30-2:00 pm Lunch and depart

The Symposium is very grateful for the financial support of the Early Book Society.